Updated news re ISIS - January 15, 2024
Turkey prevents UN visit to hide its use of mercenaries in armed conflicts
January 3, 2024
Turkey has refused to permit the visit of the UN watchdog group on the use of mercenaries since November 2015, when the international body initially submitted a request to visit the country on a fact-finding mission.
Behind Turkey’s prolonged lack of response to the UN request lies the concern of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government over revealing Turkey’s involvement in using proxy fighter groups to intervene in conflicts beyond its borders.
According to information available on the website of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination, Turkey was initially informed of the UN’s request to visit the country on November 12, 2015.
Nevertheless, Turkey disregarded the UN group’s initial letter, leading to a second communication on February 24, 2016 as a reminder to Turkish authorities of the international body’s interest in visiting Turkey for information gathering. Unfortunately, the second letter also received no response from the Turkish side. The UN watchdog group persisted in renewing the request on March 31, 2022, indicating its intention to visit Turkey in 2023. Once again, Turkey ignored the UN communication.
The UN working group, established in July 2015 by the Human Rights Council, comprises independent experts, and its resolutions are routinely adopted by the UN General Assembly. Conducting fact-finding missions necessitates the host country’s permission. Turkey has thus far impeded such visits by failing to respond to UN requests.
UN letter to Turkey addressing the deployment of mercenaries to support Azerbaijan’s offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh: "
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Is ISIL Really Dead?
A Review of the Extremist Group’s Past, Present, and Future
How was ISIL formed?
One can trace the beginnings of radical Islamic terrorism back at least to 1979. At the height of the Cold War, the communist People’s Democratic Party, or PDP, had risen to power in Afghanistan, which caused a civil war in which Afghani Muslim guerillas (who feared that the anti-religious nature of communism could threaten their religious freedom) led uprisings against the government. Eventually, approximately 35,0000 Muslim men from forty countries ventured to Afghanistan to join the fight and defend the right of their Muslim brothers and sisters to practice their faith.
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